The Cambridge Companion to World Literature introduces the significant ideas and practices of world literary studies. It provides a lucid and accessible account of the fundamental issues and concepts in world literature, including the problems of imagining the totality of literature; comparing literary works across histories, cultures and languages; and understanding how literary production is affected by forces such as imperialism and globalization. The essays demonstrate how detailed critical engagements with particular literary texts call forth differing conceptions of world literature, and, conversely, how theories of world literature shape our practices of readings. Subjects covered include cosmopolitanism, transnationalism, internationalism, scale and systems, sociological criticism, translation, scripts, and orality. This book also includes original analyses of genres and forms, ranging from tragedy to the novel and graphic fiction, lyric poetry to the short story and world
Margaret Atwood's international celebrity as a writer, cultural critic, and media star has given new visibility to Canadian literature in English. This Companion, with essays by twelve leading interna
This collection of newly commissioned essays explores all aspects of Melville's work from a range of perspectives including race, gender, sexuality, religion, class and nation. All Melville's key work
This lively introduction to major writers, genres and topics in Canadian literature pays attention to the social, political and economic developments that have informed literary events. Broad surveys
